Tweet What do Leon Errol and Mae Clarke have in common?

A new game for those of us who watch old films, including silents. The answer to the title is I noticed both picking tobacco off their tongues while smoking cigarettes during a film. See how many others you can find or remember doing it. I don't know how often actors do it, but I sure notice it when I see it happen.

Though there's nothing common about Mae Clarke (I love that doll!), picking tobacco off your tongue was hard to avoid before filtered fags came along; that's why most smokers vigorously tapped one end of their cancer stick (a term in common use in the '50s, & probably long before) against their cigarette case (sterling or gold, preferably) before lighting up.

"Re: What do Leon Errol and Mae Clarke have in common?"

I thought you were going to say you'd found a film in which someone throws a grapefruit at Leon Errol!

So that's what they were doing. The first time i saw this was in the film on Frances Farmer with Jessica Lang. I think she did that every time she lit up, it almost seemed like a motif of some sort. I've seen it only infrequently since.

greta

I vaguely seem to recall Susan Alexander Kane, washed-up opera "singer", doing this while being interviewed by News on the March reporter Thompson at the night club El Rancho.

Anyone with real class would have used a cigarette holder.

With so much smoking going on in films then, one would have to swallow it or go to cut.

Though there's nothing common about Mae Clarke (I love that doll!), picking tobacco off your tongue was hard to avoid before filtered fags came along; that's why most smokers vigorously tapped one end of their cancer stick (a term in common use in the '50s, & probably long before) against their cigarette case (sterling or gold, preferably) before lighting up.

While tapping the unfiltered cigarette makes some sense for the reason you mention, the funny part is watching people with filtered cigarettes going through the same motion. One can excuse the old-timers (old habits are hard to break) but when everyone does it you have to wonder what cultural apparatus is at work here.

Though there's nothing common about Mae Clarke (I love that doll!), picking tobacco off your tongue was hard to avoid before filtered fags came along; that's why most smokers vigorously tapped one end of their cancer stick (a term in common use in the '50s, & probably long before) against their cigarette case (sterling or gold, preferably) before lighting up.

While tapping the unfiltered cigarette makes some sense for the reason you mention, the funny part is watching people with filtered cigarettes going through the same motion. One can excuse the old-timers (old habits are hard to break) but when everyone does it you have to wonder what cultural apparatus is at work here.

Ah! I know this one. At least what I was told is it's to pack the tobacco tighter so the smoke gets more concentrated. It really only needs to be done to the pack when bought, which is why you sometimes see a smoker who just bought a pack flip it upside down and beat the daylights out of it on a flat surface (this performance is how I came to ask!). I've also seen smokers do it to individual cigarettes as well for the same reason. I just don't think it does as much there.

Ah! I know this one. At least what I was told is it's to pack the tobacco tighter so the smoke gets more concentrated. It really only needs to be done to the pack when bought, which is why you sometimes see a smoker who just bought a pack flip it upside down and beat the daylights out of it on a flat surface (this performance is how I came to ask!). I've also seen smokers do it to individual cigarettes as well for the same reason. I just don't think it does as much there.

This I've never noticed; my father, consuming a carton a day wouldn't have had time to do so. (Not the Big C, incidentally, got him in the end, rather the Big A.) Once the lovely fashion of cigarette cases went the way of hats, canes, & many other good things, a smoker had no convenient hard surface to tap-tap against.

Amongst the younglings who perform the stunt of repeatedly tapping their freshly purchased, unopened packs, my observations, since college days, place most of them in the dim-bulb/hulk/decided lack of class category. As usual, the contemporary successor to some older practice lacks finesse and subtlety,

Ah! I know this one. At least what I was told is it's to pack the tobacco tighter so the smoke gets more concentrated. It really only needs to be done to the pack when bought, which is why you sometimes see a smoker who just bought a pack flip it upside down and beat the daylights out of it on a flat surface (this performance is how I came to ask!). I've also seen smokers do it to individual cigarettes as well for the same reason. I just don't think it does as much there.

This I've never noticed; my father, consuming a carton a day wouldn't have had time to do so. (Not the Big C, incidentally, got him in the end, rather the Big A.) Once the lovely fashion of cigarette cases went the way of hats, canes, & many other good things, a smoker had no convenient hard surface to tap-tap against.

My dad was two packs a day of Winstons until he quit (in 1968!), and he never tapped, either. I first saw someone tapping a fresh pack in the 1990s. Maybe the cigarette companies are now putting less tobacco in more loosely? I know it works, it can pack the tobacco 1/8" down the cylinder or more.

An update - Kay Johnson also picks tobacco from her tongue in Their Big Moment.

Ah! I know this one. At least what I was told is it's to pack the tobacco tighter so the smoke gets more concentrated. It really only needs to be done to the pack when bought, which is why you sometimes see a smoker who just bought a pack flip it upside down and beat the daylights out of it on a flat surface (this performance is how I came to ask!). I've also seen smokers do it to individual cigarettes as well for the same reason. I just don't think it does as much there.

This I've never noticed; my father, consuming a carton a day wouldn't have had time to do so. (Not the Big C, incidentally, got him in the end, rather the Big A.) Once the lovely fashion of cigarette cases went the way of hats, canes, & many other good things, a smoker had no convenient hard surface to tap-tap against.

My dad was two packs a day of Winstons until he quit (in 1968!), and he never tapped, either. I first saw someone tapping a fresh pack in the 1990s. Maybe the cigarette companies are now putting less tobacco in more loosely? I know it works, it can pack the tobacco 1/8" down the cylinder or more.

How do you know? Seems like that would be a very difficult thing to measure. Or a more important question would be to give a pack of 'tapped' cigarettes and a pack of 'untapped' cigarettes to a smoker, not tell them which is which, and see if they can tell the difference.

This I've never noticed; my father, consuming a carton a day wouldn't have had time to do so. (Not the Big C, incidentally, got him in the end, rather the Big A.) Once the lovely fashion of cigarette cases went the way of hats, canes, & many other good things, a smoker had no convenient hard surface to tap-tap against.

My dad was two packs a day of Winstons until he quit (in 1968!), and he never tapped, either. I first saw someone tapping a fresh pack in the 1990s. Maybe the cigarette companies are now putting less tobacco in more loosely? I know it works, it can pack the tobacco 1/8" down the cylinder or more.

How do you know? Seems like that would be a very difficult thing to measure. Or a more important question would be to give a pack of 'tapped' cigarettes and a pack of 'untapped' cigarettes to a smoker, not tell them which is which, and see if they can tell the difference.

I saw a friend do it with a hard pack of GPC 100s and I was amazed at the space between the tobacco and the end of the paper cylinder. The next time he bought a pack I had him demonstrate it again, showing how much difference there was. It happened in the late 1990s, so I don't know if they're made any different now. Taste? Ask a smoker, I never was one and even the guy who showed it to me quit smoking.